I got this pen today

[PithyProlix]

18 minutes ago, Mercian said:

T’other day, my Pilot Squid Pen Plumix arrived!

 

Top-view:

 

 

 

Side-view:

 

 

I have been pleasantly surprised to find that its rather loligoform shape is actually Squidtastically-comfortable in my hand 😊

That said, I hold my pens with a traditional ‘tripod’ grip.
If you hold your pens differently, you may well find its three-faceted hard-plastic grip-section to be decidedly inconvenient/unpleasant.

 

Mine has a nib that is marked ‘M’. I believe that it has an Italic grind.

Also, mine is an example of the European species of Plumix - it is chambered for ‘Short International’ cartridges. One SIC, of a blue ink, came to me inside the pen.

If one finds a Plumix outside Europe, it will most likely be an example of the ‘Asian’, or ‘common’ Plumix. That species feeds on Pilot’s own proprietary cartridges, rather than on SICs.

 

One last thing:

Pilot also produces a similar beast, called the ‘Pluminix’.

The Plumix is larger than the Pluminix.

The way that I remember which one is larger, and which one is smaller, is by thinking of the ‘Pluminix’ as a ‘mini Plumix’.

 

Slàinte,

M.

 

The Pluminix must be the squidlet (squidlette?) version.

I have a tripod grip and the grip on my Plumini [just guessing the plural of Pluminix - perhaps something like octopus/octopi?] is the worst I've tried. I hate the Lamy Safari/Al Star's similarly. De gustibus non est disputandum. (But I am OK with the Parker 75's. Go figure.)

 

It should be pretty obvious if yours is an italic. Also, does the point have any tipping?

 

I think a Pilot that does not use their proprietary cartridge is very strange. I'd like to see how its feed design compares to, say, the Plumix's. I wonder if Pilot contracted out production to a 3rd party, perhaps only making the nibs themselves? Or are the nibs different between the European and Asian species?

 

Thanks for the nice show and tell!

 

EDIT: By the way, 'squid' and 'ink' are the same word in Thai (pronounced something like 'mook'). Not totally surprising, right? And the word for 'fountain pen' (pronounced something like 'pakkah-mook-soom') literally means a pen that seeps ink.

[Mercian]

5 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

It should be pretty obvious if yours is an italic. Also, does the point have any tipping?

Sorry, I ought to have made myself more clear.

 

It doesn’t have any tipping - but what I meant to say is that (after seeing a discussion on another thread) I think that this pen’s nib has an Italic grind, as opposed to what I believe is a Cursive grind on Pilot’s nibs that are marked ‘CM’.

I have also just acquired a Pilot Metropolitan that has one of those nibs.

 

I am looking forward to comparing them for myself 😊

 

(I just need to empty a couple of other pens first.)

[Mercian]

9 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

I think a Pilot that does not use their proprietary cartridge is very strange.

They seem to have decided to make their less-expensive pens intended for the European market in such a way as to take SICs.

And have now also e.g. completely withdrawn all their inexpensive models from the UK. Indeed, various retailers have said that Pilot actually prevents them from selling these pens to the UK.

 

We can still buy the disposable ‘V-pen’ series. Those are currently sold at about £5 each.
Apart from those, we are allowed to buy the CH92 piston-filler (about £185 each at the moment), or Pilot’s other ‘high-end’ c/c pens. Which are more-expensive than the CH92, and are chambered for Pilot’s own cartridges.

 

Pilot also prevents anyone from selling bottles of their/Namiki ‘Blue’, ‘Black’, and ‘Blue/black’ inks in (and sometimes to) the UK 🤷‍♂️

We can buy cartridges, or bottled Iroshizuku inks.

 

I do not understand this, er, ‘strategy’ at all.

[Mercian]

22 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

EDIT: By the way, 'squid' and 'ink' are the same word in Thai (pronounced something like 'mook'). Not totally surprising, right? And the word for 'fountain pen' (pronounced something like 'pakkah-mook-soom') literally means a pen that seeps ink.

This is fascinating information 👍

And yet more proof (as if any were needed) that, while many cultures (e.g. the Thai culture) invent names for new things that sensible and logical, the English are stubbornly capricious and whimsical.

I am starting to believe that we name things in this - confusing - manner on-purpose.
Similarly to the way in which we pronounce many of our place-names in ways that seem to bear very little relation to the way that we insist on spelling our place-names 😉

 

We are a strange people… 😁

[51ISH]

4 hours ago, Mercian said:

T’other day, my Pilot Squid Pen Plumix arrived!

 

Top-view:

 

 

 

Side-view:

 

 

I have been pleasantly surprised to find that its rather loligoform shape is actually Squidtastically-comfortable in my hand 😊

That said, I hold my pens with a traditional ‘tripod’ grip.
If you hold your pens differently, you may well find its three-faceted hard-plastic grip-section to be decidedly inconvenient/unpleasant.

 

Mine has a nib that is marked ‘M’. I believe that it has an Italic grind.

Also, mine is an example of the European species of Plumix - it is chambered for ‘Short International’ cartridges. One SIC, of a blue ink, came to me inside the pen.

If one finds a Plumix outside Europe, it will most likely be an example of the ‘Asian’, or ‘common’ Plumix. That species feeds on Pilot’s own proprietary cartridges, rather than on SICs.

 

One last thing:

Pilot also produces a similar beast, called the ‘Pluminix’.

The Plumix is larger than the Pluminix.

The way that I remember which one is larger, and which one is smaller, is by thinking of the ‘Pluminix’ as a ‘mini Plumix’.

 

Slàinte,

M.

 

I received a medium and a broad on Saturday. I didn't 'take the hint'   of the included SIC especially when it gave problems.  I managed to bully a Pilot refill into each of them 🤣  Of the two I prefer the Broad.

[Bo Bo Olson]

2 hours ago, 51ISH said:

Of the two I prefer the Broad.

That would be " a M in western.

I've grown to like western M much. It is disrespected by many.

Many come in with an M and go narrow. I went wide........... Jep, it took me a while to start liking M.

M is IMO the minimum for rough papers; laid or linen effect.

[51ISH]

11 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

That would be " a M in western.

I've grown to like western M much. It is disrespected by many.

Many come in with an M and go narrow. I went wide........... Jep, it took me a while to start liking M.

M is IMO the minimum for rough papers; laid or linen effect.

 

When I first started writing with an FP in Secondary School

(11-16/18 yrs) M was pretty much all you could get in a B&M store where I lived. I've got F's and EF. However, despite my small handwriting I seem to be moving to B and checking out some Stubs 😈 Jury is still out on Stubs, I think maybe a nice B is in order...🤔

[dms525]

I got a Pilot E95S - Burgundy-Champagne with an EF nib. I inked it with Tsuki-yo and am amazed by how it writes. I did not expect the nib to be as soft as it is. I get lots of line variation with "normal" cursive script.

 

The smooth way this pen posts is so cool. It's at risk for becoming a fidget toy.

 

David

[Bo Bo Olson]

1 hour ago, 51ISH said:

I seem to be moving to B and checking out some Stubs 😈 Jury is still out on Stubs, I think maybe a nice B is in order...🤔

 I chased German pens, the " 1950-70 era ...'50-65 for Pelikan are double soft semi-flex and factory stubs on the whole.

 

Do keep your eye open for CI's you might have to have a (in England, a nib grinder like John Swobada/Sowboda(sp) who is the man in England, but he refers to himself as a nib geinder, not a nibmeister.

 

I only have one CI done by Pendleton Brown.

 

But I have a whole slue of stubs, mostly semi&maxi-semi-flex.

[Mercian]

8 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Do keep your eye open for CI's you might have to have a (in England, a nib grinder like John Swobada/Sowboda(sp) who is the man in England, but he refers to himself as a nib geinder, not a nibmeister.

@51ISH The name of the gentleman in question is John Sorowka.

 

He lives in Oxford and he is a member here, with the username ‘Oxonian’.

👍

[51ISH]

2 minutes ago, Mercian said:

@51ISH The name of the gentleman in question is John Sorowka.

 

He lives in Oxford and he is a member here, with the username ‘Oxonian’.

👍

 

👍  I remember the name from when I was last caught loitering around these parts 🙂

[Bo Bo Olson]

38 minutes ago, Mercian said:

John Sorowka.

 

Thank you Mercian.

I've been misspelling his name since I first ran into it.

I am in the top 10% of the worlds worst spellers.

 

Problem solved name written down to be taped to part of my desk....right under Mauricio's name.

John Sorowka ground nibs for the real fancy Conway Stewart pens, I could never afford, and lately some other re-boot of an old English company starting with Oxxxx.

Again a craftsman made pen.

[Misfit]

Three pens arrived today. The top one is a Nebula Eco in gray. The other two are Jinhao 82 pens with bent nibs. I did order 1.1mm stub nibs. They haven’t arrived yet. 
 

[AmandaW]

Two Jinhao pens arrived today. A 992 in Black and a Purple 86. Both have Fine nibs. The reason for the order was a little pack of fude nibs to suit the 992 since I have many of those pens, find them very reliable and would like to carry them around for sketching. They are so good at resisting drying out. To qualify for faster shipping I added the two pens. The 86 is already filled with Van Dieman's Sweet Fig and will likely write a few journal pages in the morning. I like it very much already!

 

[Mercian]

13 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

John Sorowka ground nibs for the real fancy Conway Stewart pens, I could never afford, and lately some other re-boot of an old English company starting with Oxxxx.

Again a craftsman made pen.

Would that company be Onoto?

Their webpage for their different ‘collections’ of pens is here.

They make some very pretty pens - albeit the prices of many of them might be described as ‘reassuringly exclusive’… 😁

 

Should I come into some money, there are several Onoto pens that ‘call to’ me.

[Bo Bo Olson]

2 hours ago, Mercian said:

Would that company be Onoto?

That sounds right......it was a nice looking pen, ...if still made......was made by craftsmen in an old some kind of handworks building, so expensive.

Seemed to be well known workemen,  some were introduced on the German 5 minute  TV show...on them making that pen. Not John Sorowka.

 

2 hours ago, Mercian said:

'reassuringly exclusive’

That is a beautiful phrase.

[51ISH]

4 hours ago, Mercian said:

Would that company be Onoto?

Their webpage for their different ‘collections’ of pens is here.

They make some very pretty pens - albeit the prices of many of them might be described as ‘reassuringly exclusive’… 😁

 

Should I come into some money, there are several Onoto pens that ‘call to’ me.

Cheapest by some margin I could find the other day was £250

[Bo Bo Olson]

A number of years ago, I remember them starting back up....they have come quite a ways since then....

And their students pen only costs €249. I was never such a student....

 

[Waltz For Zizi]

20 hours ago, Misfit said:

Three pens arrived today. The top one is a Nebula Eco in gray. The other two are Jinhao 82 pens with bent nibs. I did order 1.1mm stub nibs. They haven’t arrived yet. 
 

How are the 82 compared to the 992? Have you tried them?

Do you reckon the translucent material on these will be less prone to cracking than the 992?

I have 3 jinhao 82 on the way myself, but I'll have to wait at least a month till they arrive.

[MarcoA63]

Majohn A1. It comes in a cute box, filled with alternative ink containers. Looks and feels sturdy. EF nib that writes like an F, and I like this. Smooth writer. To be continued after I've used it for more time ....